


Light of Time

by TessaDoesThings



Series: Tessa's Soft Wars [19]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi - Charles Soule
Genre: A light serving of, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jedi Medical Services, Kidnapped, Light of the Jedi spoilers, Radiation Posioning, Rescue, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars, That Awesome Jedi Ship from the High Republic, Time Travel, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28728342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TessaDoesThings/pseuds/TessaDoesThings
Summary: Two moments where the things that hurt the most in the Light of the Jedi get a little bit softer with help from the soft wars - clone wars characters, and inexplicable time travel.“Hello.” The voice that plays over the call as it connects is unmistakably Kel Dor, and also sounds remarkably unconcerned about the quantity of explosions on the hull of his ship. The hologram springs to life in front of Avar. The Kel Dor looks slightly on the older side, but definitely not older than middle-aged. More interestingly, he is dressed in robes that Avar is willing to guess are a shade of red when not washed blue by a hologram. Clipped to the Kel Dor’s side hangs what is unmistakably a lightsaber.
Relationships: Avar Kriss & Jora Malli, Avar Kriss & Pevel Kronara, Plo Koon & CC-3636 | Wolffe
Series: Tessa's Soft Wars [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1829968
Comments: 20
Kudos: 62
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	1. Avar Kriss

Jedi Master Avar Kriss stands aboard the bridge of the _Ataraxia_ , watching the battle before her unfold in horror. As Avar watches, she feels life after life go out through the force, their notes disappearing from the song the force weaves before her. It may have been only moments ago, but it is already hard to remember the joy from those moments just minutes ago when it was clear the Republic was winning the battle against the Nihil fleet. Instead, Avar feels only dread as yet another one of the medium-sized Nihil ships takes a dive across the battlefield the way another ship might set up for a bombing run.

As the ship swings around, reveal its course, Avar sends a desperate message to any pilot on that course to move, to flee the ship’s pathway. It does little to abate the dread. The countless previous times have shown Avar that she will reach perhaps half of the pilots she needs to, and that fact boils under her skin. She can be better than this. She was better than this just days ago during the crisis in the Hetzal system – the one the press was now calling the Great Disaster, that had started all of this. She had done the impossible in Hetzal, had saved the system by tapping into and connecting the song of the force in every Jedi in the whole system. Why, Avar grits her teeth and stretches just a little farther, reaches two more pilots, was her range so much smaller now? (She knows why. There are far more people to reach inside the smaller range, and so few of them are Jedi. When she connected to the Jedi, she only had to reach half-way, the other Jedi would meet her in the middle. A force-null pilot cannot do the same, so it takes twice as much energy to meet each one of them.)

The instant she had to warn the pilots passes in the span of a heartbeat. Avar has reached a little over half this time. She is utterly exhausted, but still, she watches. The Nihil ship completes its turn and tilts to the side as it soars over the pilots Avar couldn’t reach. She renews her efforts. Maybe she can save a few more, maybe she can still reach the ones farthest from the ship. As she watches, a panel on the side of the Nihil ship slides open, and she can see for just a moment the glint of the dark engine byproduct that the Nihil ship pours over both ally and enemy indiscriminately. Avar drops. Even with the force, she cannot see where the engine byproduct has gone, and it is invisible to both the ship’s scammers and her eyes. Avar can only helplessly wait for the feeling of the rot setting in in the force signatures of those pilots and crewmembers, marring the notes they play in the song of the force. She feels it setting into the first of the pilots hit in that run now, the highly radioactive nature of the byproduct seeping into the ships that were hit and irradiating all who were within them.

Avar pokes one of the Jedi healers farther into the ship, showing them the new batch of irradiated pilots. It’s excessive, she knows, the healers will feel what is happening to them perhaps more acutely than Avar does. She does it anyway. There’s nothing else she can do for the pilots she failed. Avar watches as a small contingent of Vectors deploys from the side of the _Ataraxia_ – two for each irradiated ship, both those fighting for the Nihil and the Republic. Radiation is slow and painful and no Jedi worth their Kyber would let anyone die from radiation poison, and the Nihil aren’t picking up their own pilots. She follows the first two Vectors with her eyes as they link to either side of the ship, the Jedi driving the Vectors grabbing it with the force, and begin the journey back to the _Ataraxia_ before her attention is drawn away. Another Nihil ship is setting up to dump more byproduct, and the cycle begins again. Avar steels her mind again. She’s tiring, she knows it, but there are lives on the line that she has to warn.

Avar is reaching out, reaching to connect to those bright notes in the melody that are in danger of being corrupted now, when something strange happens. The whole day has been strange, this whole week inexplicable, but still, this manages to be surprising. There is a wash of fear from the Nihil pilots, one at a time, and then, in the blink of an eye, the pilots vanish. It’s almost as though the ships are jumping to hyperspace, but there are no hyperspace lanes there. Before Avar has time to ruminate on the question, there’s an explosion from one of the Republic cruisers ahead of her.

“We’ve been hit!” There’s a cry over the intercom, and then suddenly there are many more just like it. For every ship that disappears before her eyes, Avar hears another collision. Before long, it isn’t just the big cruisers being hit. The smaller ships begin to explode as well. There’s screaming and fear in the force, drowning out the song, barring down onto Avar from all sides, and it’s all she can do to remain in control of herself, to keep the fear outside of her, to keep breathing, to not lose herself in that moment.

Suddenly, there’s a loud ring in the force, and the panic that was bearing down on Avar quiets. She looks up from where she buried her face against her palms and knotted her hair in her fingers. She hadn’t noticed herself do that. Gently, she untangles her fingers from her hair and looks up. In the middle of the battlefield, where previously there were hundreds of ships engaged in a firefight, there now is a huge battleship, unlike anything Avar has ever seen before. It looks almost like it is emerging from hyperspace, but again, there is no hyperlane there. She can see the flashes of light on the hull of the cruiser (maybe? Was that a cruiser? Could a ship that big be called a cruiser?) where the Nihil ships were colliding with it. Avar makes some gesture at Admiral Kronara, she doesn’t know what, but the Admiral has served with Avar enough in the past two weeks that he knows what she wants, and hails the new ship.

“Hello.” The voice that plays over the call as it connects is unmistakably Kel Dor, and also sounds remarkably unconcerned about the quantity of explosions on the hull of his ship. The hologram springs to life in front of Avar. The Kel Dor looks slightly on the older side, but definitely not older than middle-aged. More interestingly, he is dressed in robes that Avar is willing to guess are a shade of red when not washed blue by a hologram. Clipped to the Kel Dor’s side hangs what is unmistakably a lightsaber.

“Hello.” Avar inclines her head slightly to him. “This is Jedi Master Avar Kriss. Who are you, and what are you doing here?” It’s horribly impolite of her, but every bone in Avar’s body is tired so that even the force sings with her weariness, and she hasn’t slept properly since the crisis in Hetzal. She’ll forgive herself a little rudeness. She’s so tired she almost misses the way he starts a little at her name, or the motions he’s making with his hands.

“My name Jedi Master Plo Koon with the ship the _Triumphant_ , and as for the second question, I was rather hoping you knew the answer to that. I haven’t the slightest clue. This certainly isn’t the Devaron System, where we entered hyperspace, nor is this our intended destination.” Avar can feel herself sag. More hyperspace confusion is exactly what the Republic needs after everything that has happened. Somehow, she doesn’t think this counts as one of the emergences. Those had been the debris of the _Legacy Run_ being thrown from hyperspace. The ship in front of her is definitely not debris.

Besides, Koon is definitely a Jedi. Elzar hadn’t signaled that he felt a lie in the force when he introduced himself, and Avar hadn’t felt one either. Curiously, however, Avar has never heard of any Jedi with the name Koon, and certainly no Master.

Another man steps into the hologram beside Master Koon. This man is covered in white armor that looks almost Mandalorian in design, although it shines like plastoid. It’s painted with what Avar assumes is grey, and there are elaborate decorations on the shoulders and geometric patterns on the rest. The Kel Dor’s face scrunches with contemplation in response to whatever the new man says – the call doesn’t pick it up. Master Koon strokes his chin before nodding. “Yes, thank you, Wolffe. That sounds like a good plan.” Master Koon places a hand on the other man’s shoulder, and Avar can see him preen. The Kel Dor returns his attention to the call. “We are launching some of our fighters to fight off the ships which continue to slam against our hull, please do not panic.” He says it so calmly, that Avar feels a laugh bubbling up inside her at the sheer craziness going on. She manages a nod instead.

The door to the bridge slams open and Avar feels Master Jora Malli stride in behind her. The Togruta commands the attention of the room as she calls out to Avar.

“Master Kriss, what in the nine sith hells is happening?”

Avar can’t help it, and she doubles over into what she is sure is insane-looking hysterical laughter.


	2. Loden Greatstorm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loden is broken out of pirate prison by an unexpected group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhh,,, this chapter opens with a character in a bad place, and features the following:  
> A paragraph of overstimulation (from "Without his shields..." to the end of that paragraph)  
> A paragraph of graphic electrocution (from "Then, as abruptly..." to the end of that paragraph)

For Jedi Master Loden Greatstorm, the days have begun to blur together. At least, he thinks it’s been days. There is no way of keep track of time in the featureless cell he’s in. There are no windows, no bars, only four walls which seem to bear down on him. No, the only way Loden has to keep track of the time is the periodic bursts of pain from the other cells around him, but even those are becoming irregular. The regularity of those is fading now as his fellow prisoners begin to pass out. However, even without meals to count the days, Loden has slept three times since being here, so it’s been at least a couple of days. It hasn’t been much longer than a handful of days though. Loden ~~thinks~~ , ~~hopes~~ , prays he’d know if it had been weeks since his capture.

The only thing that breaks up the four gray walls is the door in one of the corners, which has a pane of transparisteel set into it. Loden has spent more time than he wants to admit staring out of that window hoping for something to happen to break up the sameness of every moment, but no one has so much as walked down the hallway on the other side of the window since the Nihil with Loden’s lightsaber had come to gloat.

Loden’s train of thought is derailed as another shock is delivered to a prisoner in another cell, and the sound of the other man’s pain echoes through Loden’s cell and through his mind. The wave of pain that echoes through the force from the other prisoner slams into Loden as well, and he has to stop himself from shaking as the misery in that tears through what little remains of his mental shields. He does drop his head back against one of the walls and lets the cold of the durasteel bleed into his lekku, grounding him.

Loden doesn’t know who the other prisoners are or why they are here. He tried to talk to them when he first woke up in the cell, but none of the others had ever responded. Maybe they can’t hear him. Maybe they don’t want to hear him. Loden has given up on that. The wave of pain drops off suddenly, and Loden suspects that its source has passed out.

Every part of Loden aches. His lekku are stiff and cold, and he has to slowly work them through small circles against his back to keep them from freezing up. His limbs are aching with a desire to move, but there’s barely space to lay down in his cell, much less get any worthwhile sort of exercise. Loden’s head _throbs_ from where his shields have been steadily decimated. His whole body still tingles from the last time the walls of the cell had delivered a shock.

Without his shields up, Loden can feel as emotions begin racing nearby. He suspects a fight has just broken out, and the anger and the fear and the adrenaline are wrapping themselves around Loden as well. He tries to block them out, to put up something of a barricade against the feelings, but he can’t pull anything up, can’t put up the effort, and instead the emotions wash over him, and Loden feels them as though they were his own. He wraps one of his lekku around his neck and focuses on the feeling of his dark green skin against the sensitive, sore lek. Loden closes his eyes and focused on those physical sensations, riding out the unwanted emotions from the battle.

Loden has no idea how long the fight has lasted when the emotions begin to die down, and he can feel several force signatures pull away is if in retreat. He feels a pang of disappointment – it appears his captors have won the fight. He wonders if the Nihil with his lightsaber had been involved. If there were any more unnecessary deaths tainting the blade now. He takes a deep breath and lets it back out again, refocusing on his breathing rather than dwelling on such thoughts. When he can’t quiet that portion of his mind, Loden instead draws himself into a breathing meditation. He hasn’t had much luck meditating here, but it’s better than doing nothing.

Loden is drawn out of his meditation by the burning pricks across his whole body. He doesn’t have it in himself to repress the scream that tears its way out of his mouth as the electricity courses through his body, and he doubles over in pain. He draws his lekku to his chest as he folds over, as if trying to shield them, despite intellectually knowing that won’t actually protect them. The red-hot burning flashes across his lekku block out any sounds, so he can’t tell what’s coming out of his mouth, but he’s pretty sure he’s still screaming.

Then, as abruptly as it started, the shock stops, leaving Loden on the floor. He blinks, and uncurls himself, drawing his head back up. Suddenly, he’s aware of the feeling that he’s being watched, and he follows the pull of the force to see a Nihil standing at the door to his cell. The mask is the same as the one worn by the Nihil who had taken Loden’s lightsaber, the one who he is assuming is in charge. Loden can feel smug amusement radiating from him, and feels dread curling in the pit of his stomach at the thought of whatever could make this man feel that way.

“You were right, you know.” The Nihil starts, and there’s a cruel glee in his voice. “Your order did come for you. Your padawan even led the charge. But… in the end, they just weren’t enough.” The Nihil speaks, and Loden knows that he’s grinning behind the mask as Loden’s world comes crashing down. What has he done to Loden’s padawan? Loden grabs at the training bond that hangs between their minds and finds it still there. It’s faint but there. Bell still lives. Loden can’t open himself to it any further without proper shielding, can’t inflict his pain onto his young padawan, but _it is still there_.

“If you have touched my padawan…” Loden bites out, and the Nihil bursts out in mocking laughter.

“You’ll do what? You can barely stand right now.” He mocks, and Loden growls, his lekku twitching with the rage. He doesn’t articulate the thought, but if Bell is seriously injured, Loden knows he’ll do something he’ll regret, threats towards the hostages or no. “Well, if you miss your padawan so much, she can join you here.” The Nihil is projecting so much malice that Loden _almost_ misses the inconsistency in his comment. His padawan, last he checked, definitely did not go by she. Loden opens his mouth to say something when the gentle press of another force signature runs over the scared taters of his shielding. _Go with it_ , the signature whispers into his mind Loden does.

“Don’t touch her.” Loden hears himself spit the words out. The door of his cell opens, and another figure is thrown in. Loden catches sight of a second lightsaber hooked around the Nihil’s belt, which he assumes belongs to the other force-user. The door slams shut again before Loden can make any move that will get him and the newcomer free, or even begin to plan around the hostages.

Loden looks over the other figure as she picks herself up from the ground, sending a glare to the door. The girl is a green-skinned mirialan and is at least the right age to be a padawan, maybe in the middle of her training. Loden is willing to believe she’s a padawan as well, given the way the other force signature hasn’t stopped worriedly hovering near his mind, as well as the familiar meditation pose that she has pulled herself into.

“Are you okay?” Loden asks as he forces himself into a seating position, even if he has to lean against the wall. His whole body is still tingling and burning from the electric shock, but he thinks he manages it.

“I’m fine, but are you okay?” She asks, offering Loden a hand and helping him into a proper seating position. He gives her a small smile, debating the merits of the answers. He doubts she’d believe any platitudes about his state, as she just saw him fail to properly sit up.

“I have been better.” He responds, and that earns him a small quirk of her lips. It causes her tattoos to scrunch up from where they run over her nose. “I don’t believe we’ve met?” He asks her, which inexplicably gets a giggle from her.

“No, we haven’t. I’m Padawan Barriss Offee.” She responds, settling back into her sitting position. “And you?” She continues, which surprises Loden. It has been a long time since a fellow Jedi didn’t recognize him, and he feels as though a rescue team would at least have been given his name.

“Master Loden Greatstorm.” He answers before selecting his next words carefully. “I could feel the battle going on nearby – what was that about?” He doesn’t ask if that was a rescue attempt. Loden doesn’t think he’d be able to handle it if the answer was no, but he also doesn’t think he’d be able to handle it if she answered yes. Padawan Offee seems to hear the question anyway.

“I was traveling with…” She pauses as if searching for the right words. Loden brushes against her force signature as gently as he can right now, projecting understanding, and prays his control is as good as he’s hoping it remains. She grins. “I was traveling with my master and a detachment of pilots and troopers when we stumbled across this fleet.” Padawan Offee gestures around the room to establish she was talking about the ship they were currently aboard. “We stumbled across it entirely by accident, but now that we know it’s here, it’s only a matter of time.” Padawan Offee does not say what will happen in a matter of time, but Loden knows what she’s thinking. He thought the same thoughts. He steels himself and then goes to burst her bubble. It will hurt less this way.

“The Nihil have your Master’s squad of pilots outmatched. I could feel the battle – They’ll have to go for reinforcements before staging a rescue.” Loden grinds out. He’d never admit it to the Nihil, and he refuses to say it in front of padawan, but he’s beginning to doubt a rescue will come at all. The Republic doesn’t even know there’s more to the Nihil than the one sect he’s sure they’ve wiped out by now. But maybe… maybe Padawan Offee’s master can change that, at least. To Loden’s surprise, Padawan Offee simply starts giggling.

“They never had us outmatched, Master Loden.” She insists, drawing a raised eyebrow from him. She beams. “We ended up here – and last I checked no one was quite sure how – and then were attacked by the, what did you call them, the Nihil? Well, we received a call from one of them talking about how we would never recover the Jedi they had stolen, and well, as my best friend says, we live to prove pirates wrong.” Padawan Offee shrugs. This time, it’s Loden who can’t help a snort. “In fact,” Padawan Offee continues, “Our ride should be arriving any minute now.”

Just as she says that the alarms of the ships begin blaring. The vibrations are loud and several kinds of terrible against Loden’s abused lekku, but he grits his teeth and bears it.

“What’s the plan?” He asks her, and she grins.

“Gree will come for us.” She responds, and Loden doesn’t know who that is, but he can feel her trust and love in the force, so he nods like he understands. “In the meantime,” Padawan Offee scoots closer to him. “Can I touch you?” She asks, and he nods, a little bewildered. To his surprise, she reaches out a hand close to his lekku, and her hand begins to glow, and the glow washes over him. The familiar sensation of force-healing washes over him at a level Loden would not have expected from a padawan. He relaxes into it, feeling the lingering tingling melting away. She only maintains the healing for a few moments, but Loden feels like a new twi’lek afterward.

“Thank you.” He means with every no-longer-burning inch of his body, and this time she rewards him with a full smile.

“It’s no problem.” She wraps an arm under his arm and around his back, and sends the general sense of standing to him through the force. So, as she climbs to her feet, she pulls Loden with her, and Loden does all he can to not topple over. Padawan Offee guides them both through the few possible steps away from the door, surprisingly deep in concentration. It’s then that Loden realizes her deep focus is because she’s constructing a mock-up of shields over his mind, which is also why he hasn’t noticed the contingent of force signatures just outside the door until now.

Padawan Offee offers a thumbs up at the transparisteel on the door, and there’s a pair of clicking sounds, and then a flash as the door is flung out its hinges, and then a boom as it slams against the ground. Loden isn’t entirely successful in hiding his wince. When he looks up, there is a humanoid figure standing in the doorway. The figure isn’t wearing the mask that all the Nihil wear but is instead dressed top-to-bottom in armor made of what looks like a plastoid. The white armor is decorated with elaborate designs of green paint. Loden can see several more similarly-dressed figures behind him.

“Ad’ika.” The figure addresses Padawan Offee. The language is unfamiliar to Loden, but she brightens at the address.

“Commander Gree!” She responds, and there’s bright joy in her voice and her force signature.

“The commander’s alright?” A voice that sounds a lot like Commander Gree echoes from one of the other figures. A sibling or a brother, maybe? His mind registers the odd form of address, but mostly disregards it as Padawan Offee begins to guide them both towards the door, and all of Loden's focus is on making sure his steps match with hers.

“I’m fine, Lieutenant!” He hears Padawan Offee call in response and feels Commander Gree’s force signature come around beside her.

“Then let’s get out of here.” He says, and Loden looks up to say something about the other prisoners that the Nihil were using as hostages to keep him in line, but sees the uniformed pilots(?) already helping them out of the other cells, and instead works with Padawan Offee to take his first steps towards freedom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please viciously tell me how much you liked this and perhaps I will write more.


End file.
